Letters to the Editor

Stop all that SVVSD negativity

By Brad Jolly

Posted:
01/18/2013 04:16:26 PM MST

Updated:
01/18/2013 04:24:51 PM MST

Local writer Bill Ellis, a real prose pro, desires an end to the negativity around the St. Vrain Valley School District. "The time is long past to stop bashing the very people we trust to educate," he says. Amen!

One offensive basher is the Colorado Department of Education. We all know that St. Vrain is a standards-based district with high standards, but the CDE has a shameful history of reporting CSAP and TCAP scores that call that claim into question. Enough St. Vrain bashing, CDE! Who cares that for more than a decade, the vast majority of St. Vrain sophomores have flunked your stupid test? Mr. Ellis and I will not tolerate your poor-mouthing.

The same goes for you, American College Testing! You say that only three out of 10 St. Vrain graduates are ready for college in reading, English, science and math, but who cares? Yes, St. Vrain high school students perform at middle school level, but you do not have to get snotty about it.

Furthermore, I will brook no more harshness from Ed News Colorado. Those negative nellies say St. Vrain is sixth best out of the state's seven largest suburban districts when it comes to recent graduates who must do remedial work in college. Apparently, we only beat Adams 12, and we are worse than Douglas County, Jefferson County, Cherry Creek, Boulder and Poudre. Shut up, ENC. Take your data elsewhere; St. Vrain is too positive for facts.

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Speaking of remedial work, Front Range Community College's course catalog cruelly denigrates its Longmont campus students. Front Range apparently thinks that they need to offer just four sections at or above the Calculus I level, but 19 sections at or below Algebra I. That's appalling, Front Range, and if you continue to treat large numbers of local college students as middle schoolers, you will have to answer to Bill Ellis and me!

Even the U.S. Department of Education bashes St. Vrain. Our beloved SVVSD claims that "the graduation rate for high school students is 86.6 percent," but those pointy-headed statisticians in Washington report that the actual number is just 78.8 percent, almost exactly at the national average of 78.7 percent. Stifle, Department of Education!

Some horrific St. Vrain bashing comes from district employees. For example, district staff has produced "balanced scorecards" for each SVVSD school. These scorecards have been around since 2010, but the district administration refuses to release them. Whoever put the scorecards together must have produced a set of facts so ugly that outsiders must be shielded from it, lest our psyches be permanently damaged.

Finally, one hopes that the teachers' union will stop denigrating teachers. St. Vrain teachers are obviously undercompensated superstars who would be in high demand from other districts, but the union's insistence on collective bargaining makes it seem as though these stellar performers are incapable of negotiating appropriate compensation and working conditions. Enough negativity, teachers' union!

Of course, not all of my hopes for 2013 center around the SVVSD. For example, I hope that 2013 will be the year that climate squeakers finally decide exactly what we are worrying about. In the '70s, the "new ice age" caused great hand-wringing. When that didn't scare enough people, they switched to "global warming." Now that we've had 15 years of flat temperatures, they've switched to "climate change," although whenever record high temperatures appear, they sometimes go back to "global warming." Strangely enough, they never go back to the new ice age when record lows appear.

May 2013 be the year that Boulderites care more about murdered unborn children than murdered elk.

Finally, I will thank Richard Juday not to refer to me in future articles as his "good friend." The accusation is scurrilous, vile, outrageous and scandalous; its only saving grace is that it is completely true. It is in that spirit of friendship that I hope he comes to view himself and unborn children as the beautiful and intelligent creations of a loving God that they clearly are.

As a society, we must tell the truth about what we are doing to children, even if the stark facts upset people who would prefer a more sugar-coated view.

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